Yep, but while it is very important game it is more critical to win the divisional home games.

The Hawks can still win the division if they hold serve at home. The team that can win the away divisional game(s) will have an advantage going forward if they can hold at home.

Until we develop a pass rush that will cause opposing teams to be forced to scheme to defend it we will never be able to consistently take the final step. The interior rush needs improvement. The OLine clearly still needs work.

Yes! This game is very important and it would be really nice if we beat them in their house like they did to us last year. I honestly feel that if we can beat the Niners in their house then we pretty much can have the NFC West locked up, but it will be tough!

It's also only the 3rd division game total, meaning the last 3 are in our house, later in the season when our offense should be much more in sync and more chemistry developed between Wilson and the receivers (not to mention all the added experience Wilson should have). If we can maintain the "no one wins in our house but us" theme that's been the case thus far this season, the worst we do in the division is 3-3.

There comes a time when to realistically be a team that can win a superbowl, you need to win games like Thursdays game. We have a team that should be competitive in SF regardless of where the offense is.

Yes SF's defense is better than NE's, and they are at home, but I believe that confidence was gleaned over the last 2 weeks and we can't use a developing offense as an excuse if we do not win this game.

Largent80 wrote:Yes SF's defense is better than NE's, and they are at home, but I believe that confidence was gleaned over the last 2 weeks and we can't use a developing offense as an excuse if we do not win this game.

How about using "playing the toughest D we will play all season" as an excuse?

Or "playing our strongest divisional rival in their own house just after they were embarrassed by the Giants" as an excuse?

Look, I think we definitely have a chance to win this game - especially after the confidence the team gained this past Sunday. But I just don't get these platitudes people trot out about "Oh, this is a game championship teams MUST win" or understand why people try to tie such huge importance to one out of 16 games.

The only reason this game is more important than the Arizona and St. Louis games is because we lost those two games, which makes this game necessary if we want a winning divisional record. But had the SF game been in Week 1 and the Arizona game now, the Arizona game would be more important.

There's nothing mystical about this game, and losing it won't mean the season is done or that we can't be a championship caliber team. It just means a smaller margin for error for making the postseason.

But teams take advantage of that margin for error ALL THE TIME. Last year's Giants got swept by the Redskins and lost 5 out of 6 games in the middle of their season, yet still made it in. Yes, they needed the chips to fall the right way, but that's how it played out. And yet, according to many statements tossed around at .NET, the Giants simply weren't a championship caliber team. But they have the Lombardi to prove they were.

Parity is so strong in this league that regular season games simply don't have any real extra importance. Divisional games are most important, followed by conference games, followed by non-conference, and that's ONLY because of the tiebreaker rules. The only games that are truly important in any way are those that start after Week 17 is done. And we've seen time and time again how teams that get hot at the end of the year and play their best football then are the ones no one wants to face in the postseason.

If you guaranteed me that the Hawks would make the postseason with a 10-6 record, then I would want all 6 of those wins to come after our bye week - even if it meant losing this game to the 49ers by 50.

I am very confident about this game.. Confident enough to pull a 16 hour work night so that I could get someone to cover me for the duration of the game haha. But really, I think that being the younger team will more than likely help us out a ton. I think if we can up a couple scores early, the 9ers may have a nice flashback to their "awesome" performance a few days earlier. I do hope that we can get some pressure on Alex Smith, make him make some bonehead decisions. I for one couldn't be more excited for this match up. It will be a great game no matter the outcome, even though I'm confident that we will come out with a huge "W".

This game will not be an easy win. It is crucial they contain Gore, he has been a thorn in our side since he entered the league. This game being in SF they are going to really need to pull out the stops. If Stayley is out with that concussion the pass rush is going to still have to be on it as their backup LT is a pro bowler from last year. Smith has an injured finger on his throwing hand, so there is also the possibility they may end up sitting him in favor of their backup. That would make it difficult for the game plan, so I really hope they are prepared for the eventuality. There are no easy divisional wins anymore this game is going to be a knock down drag out. As good as both of these defenses are I see another air battle coming our way. I think Wilson can handle it, if they open it up for him like they did Vs New England. The Legion of Boom is going to have to bring all they've got and then some. This is going to be a fun and at the same time agonizing game to watch. May the best team win. GO Hawks!

“There’s no reason, with Mr. Allen and the fan base here and the stadium, that this can’t be a stable, long-term winning organization.” - John Schneider

I can easily say this was the game I was looking most forward to when the schedule came out. I want this victory so bad I can taste it. I just hope our offense can continue playing well, and giving D time to rest in between series.

I agree this game is important. I think if we win this game than things really shape up nicely for the Hawks. Think about it. If we win this game. And if we win out at home we go 4-2 in the division and win the tiebreaker over SF because of the 2 wins.

To me the most important think is to winout at home. If we got 8-0, or 7-1 than we stand a very good chance at hitting 10-11 wins this year.

This game is very important and I'll be expecting a win, though I now it will be hard to come by, just as Dallas, GB, NE were games most though it unlikely we'd win. In all those cases we've exceeded expectations. Hopefully we can exceed them again.

A win against the 49ers should give us plenty of confidence that we can win on the road.

jlwaters1 wrote:A win against the 49ers should give us plenty of confidence that we can win on the road.

As much as I hate to admit, it's pretty much the biggest benchmark. That should shatter one of the two monkeys on our back. That being we can't win on the road. This is the toughest defense on the road. I don't care how much headway their offense has made. I still think ours is better. Their biggest threat is Vernon Davis, while we have several options to counter with.

The other monkey on our back is winning on the road, at the 10:00 am start time. Thank you NFL, for the seventeenth time in a row we travel to Chicago.

The key to us playing in the Post Season is us winning our last three "Home" games as they are against all three NFC West rivals. We must win all three!! Winning a couple of "Road" non-conference games would be a nice addition.

Us playing on the "Road" for Post Season games has not worked out well for us in the past.

It's important for all the above reasons...litmus test, confidence builder, and this is THE swing game to gauge whether or not we will have a winning record in the division this year. The Niners are tied with us for record, and this would knock them behind us, while also giving us the edge in a tie breaker with the head to head.

Also, we really need to serve notice to the division that our defense is here. The Niners served notice last year, now it's our turn.

The other nice thing is that the Niners have 6 out of their last 10 games in division. With the physical defenses our division has, they will definately be beat up at the end of the year. If we outpace them now, they will be playing catch up, and might be too emotionally drained to really give it to us in our house at the end of the season.

If the season ended today, we'd be the #6 seed in the tournament, ahead of SF. This is because we own the conference-record tie-breaker at this point in the season.

This game has numerous implications for us considering the way the upcoming schedules look for the other teams in our division. SF could easily run the table and we'd be screwed. We need this win and the win at home for the tiebreaker.

I know who I'm rooting for. Just don't make it quite as much of a nail-biter as the last one.

Being a " road team" for the Hawks usually means traveling through 3 time zones. Not the case tomorrow night. This is going to be an ugly game, close score and the loser will take heat from the fan base. If the Hawks would not have pulled it out against the Pat's, we would have lots of things we would be picking at this today. The Hawks are not an elite team, yet. If the O can consistantly move the ball and the D does what it does then we have a legit SB contending team. I love how are D turns the games into a crapshoot, ugly, but the outcome isnt decided until late.

On a side note, I see Tate as a young Hines Ward. I hate HW, and well, anything that has to do with the Stealers, but see the upside of having a guy like that on my / my kids team.